mělъ

mělь; mělъ Grammatical information: f. i; m. o

Page in Trubačev: XVIII 162-168

Old Church Slavic:

měla (Supr.) `lime' [Gensm o]

Russian:

mel' `sand-bank, shoal' [f i];

mel `chalk' [m o]

Czech:

měl (SSJČ) `spit' [f i];

měl (Jungmann) `pebble, dust, shoal' [f i];

měl (Kott) `loose earth, powder, pebble' [f i]

Old Czech:

měl `shoal, sand-bank, fodder' [m i]

Polish:

miaɫ, mieɫ (dial.) `dust, chalk, muddy water, fine powder' [m o]

Old Polish:

miel `sand-bank' [f i];

miaɫ `finely ground substance' [m o]

Serbo-Croatian:

mẽlj (Čak.), mèlja [Gens] `fine sand' [m jo];

mél (Čak.), mèla [Gens] `dust, powder' [m o]

Slovene:

mẹ̑lj `sand-bank' [m jo]

Proto-Balto-Slavic reconstruction: (s)mēl-i-

Lithuanian:

smė̃lis `sand' [m io] 2 \{1\}

Latvian:

smēlis `fine sand' [m io] \{2\}

Indo-European reconstruction: mēlH-i-

Certainty: +

Page in Pokorny: 717

Comments: The Baltic and Slavic forms are formally compatible with the root melH- `to grind', the Baltic word showing s mobile . The lengthened grade vowel points to an old root noun. Semantically, this etymology does not seem implausible to me (pace Stang (l.c.), who, by the way, does not mention any Baltic forms).

Other cognates:

OIc. melr (dial.) `sand-bank'

;

Sw. mjåg (dial.) `sand-hill, high riverbank'

;

Sw. smula `chunk'

;

Nw. smola (dial.) `smash' [verb];

Nw. smol (dial.) `dust'

\{3\} \{4\}

Notes:

\{1\} Also Standard Lithuanian is smėlỹs 4. \{2\} Judging by the Lithuanian evidence, the zero grade of the root was originally acute: smiltis 1/3/4 (LKŽ) `fine sand, gritty earth'. The only non-ambiguous Latvian forms in ME are smìlts and smìltis `sand', however. The most plausible option is that the Latvian falling tone is secondary (cf. Derksen 1996: 147). \{3\} The Scandinavian forms with sm- could derive from the root melH- `grind' preceded by s mobile. OIc. melr and Sw. (dial.) mjåg < *mjalg are mentioned by Stang in connection with Ru. mel' etc. (1972: 36). According to Stang, these words point to *melha- /melga. Therefore the possible etymological relationship with the Slavic forms is limited to the root.